Game Scoop! 841: Xbox Invites PlayStation to its Playground

Summary

Game Scoop! Episode 841: Xbox Invites PlayStation to its Playground

Podcast: Game Scoop! (IGN/Geek Media)
Date: January 23, 2026
Host: Daemon Hatfield
Panelists: Justin Davis, Nick Limone, Sam Claiborne

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Episode Overview

This lively episode covers the week’s biggest stories in gaming—including Xbox’s Developer Direct and its newfound multiplatform focus, major game reveals, the latest Ubisoft shakeup and canceled projects, plus retro arcade anniversaries. The panel also dives into first impressions of Baldur’s Gate 3, shares some personal recommendations, and nerds out on arcade nostalgia. The episode closes with the signature "Video Game 20 Questions" challenge.

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Major Topics & Discussions

1. Xbox Developer Direct: The Era of Multiplatform Xbox ([02:28]–[22:55])

Key Announcements

• Fable Reveal & Hype (starting [03:38])

  • Panel impressed by Fable’s art direction, lively NPCs, and expanded open world.
  • Sam is “blown away” by the “Majora's Mask level” NPC simulation and the giant storytelling elements.
  • Justin: “It will be a small miracle if this comes out and it’s good, because it’s been in development for so long... Playground Games, a talented studio, but they make racing games. They never made a [RPG before].” ([07:31])
  • Panel agrees it’s promising but expresses cautious optimism due to the franchise handoff.

• Forza Horizon 6: Japan Drift ([11:01])

  • Set in Japan; praised for graphics, cherry blossom drifting, and nods to car culture.
  • Nick: “This is the high-end, high-resolution Initial D game... As long as the soundtrack has some Eurobeat, just—oh man, I’m ready to drift down some mountains, baby.” ([12:07])
  • Lots of love for approachable yet deep gameplay, with fun remarks about racing in consumer cars (old Mazdas, station wagons).

• Beast of Reincarnation (Game Freak) ([16:46])

  • Surprising visual leap for Game Freak; more ambitious and visually sophisticated than Pokémon games.
  • Panel remarks on the “Nier” and “Stellar Blade” vibes, and subtle jabs at prior Pokémon technical performance.

• Kiln (Double Fine) ([19:07])

  • Noted for wild, inventive art style and long development timeline (“talked about this game in 2017... and nine years later, we just did it for real” – Justin, [19:43]).
  • Panel wonders about gameplay structure (real-time creation vs. pre-match), hopes Game Pass will broaden its audience.

Xbox’s Multiplatform Pivot

• All four featured games are launching on PS5 and PC day-and-date, signaling Xbox’s new role as a multi-platform publisher rather than merely a hardware seller ([22:11]).
• Damon: “You don’t need a Series X to play any of these games... We’re not trying to sell you hardware anymore.”
• Panel debates whether Xbox should target its Directs to the wider gaming audience rather than just Xbox fans.

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2. Games the Panel is Playing ([24:58])

Dispatch

• Daemon: Highly recommends the episodic RTS “Dispatch”—wishes for an endless/roguelike mode.
• Nick, a former Torrance resident, appreciates the game’s realistic setting.

Baldur’s Gate 3: Sam’s First Impressions ([25:47]–[35:23])

• Sam’s Challenges: Overwhelmed by “infinite” options compared to hand-holding intros (e.g., Zelda: Twilight Princess).
• Nick/Justin’s Tips: Encourage side quests, stress experimenting, saving often, and messing with environmental interactions (e.g., “dip your sword in fire for free damage").
• Notable advice: “Don’t hoard inventory items—use everything,” “Long rest a lot, don’t stress about time pressure—the game’s structure is forgiving.”
• Memorable moment: Sam: “I tried to pull a guy out of a rock, but it didn’t work.” Nick: “Did his arm fall off?” ([35:00])

Other Games

• Nick: Finished Baldur’s Gate 3, went on a Resident Evil 2 & 3 remake spree.
• Justin: Monster Train resurgence (“I might like it more than Slay the Spire”), also bonding with his daughters in Minecraft.
• Sam: Recommends “Balatro” as another roguelike deckbuilder.

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3. Ubisoft Restructuring and Project Cancellations ([41:42]–[48:49])

• Headline: Ubisoft cancels six projects (including Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake), announces studio closures and layoffs.
• Panel is saddened but not surprised, noting years-long, multi-studio development cycles are unsustainable when games need to sell 10+ million just to break even.
• Damon: “They used to have a pipeline… multiple games every year. Now… where are the Ubisoft games?” ([42:45])
• Prince of Persia remake seen as a “should have been a layup,” with disbelief that even safe bets aren’t getting out the door.
• Justin: “When selling 10 million copies… is not enough, you have to figure out a different way to do business.” ([42:37])
• Contrast to Capcom & Square Enix, who continue to release quality titles regularly.
• Explanation of Ubisoft’s new “Creative House” structure, groupings by major IP/focus.

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4. Arcade Anniversaries & Retro Nostalgia ([49:30]–[62:13])

Key Highlights

• 1976 (50th): Breakout, Death Race (infamous controversy over video game violence).
• 1986 (40th): Arkanoid, Bubble Bobble, Chiller (noted for horror and slasher themes), Darius (triple-monitor shooter), Ikari Warriors, OutRun (iconic soundtrack & “blue skies” aesthetic), Rampage (multiplayer kaiju brawler), Life Force (Salamander).
• 1996 (30th): X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Dungeons & Dragons Shadows over Mystara, Battle Garegga (acclaimed shmup).
• 2001 (25th): Bemani (Konami’s rhythm series), Ikaruga (legendary shooter with “Tate mode” origins).

Show & Tell ([62:13]–[64:19])

• Listener-made 3D woodwork of the Game Scoop! logo arrives, inspiring a moment of heartfelt appreciation from the team.

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5. Recommendations & Extracurriculars ([64:25]–[72:30])

• Daemon highly recommends “Tarantino Live” (immersive LA stage show) and recaps a nostalgia-driven theatrical showing of “The Fellowship of the Ring” (extended edition).
• Brief discussion of HBO’s “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” (“a sitcom in Westeros—good, different, not very popular yet”) and the latest Star Trek (“easily the best Star Trek since...”).

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6. Video Game 20 Questions ([72:47]–[86:09])

• Game: Carnival Games (Wii), later ported to DS.
• Panel’s reasoning revealed the shifting definition of “exclusive” with ports, and remarked on the game’s runaway sales despite lukewarm critical reception.
• Justin: “I actually don’t think this game’s that bad... value for $20.”
• Damon: “According to Wikipedia, it’s the 47th best-selling Wii game.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Fable’s Open World:
  Sam ([04:18]):
  “There hasn’t been a series… that has taken a swing at a big open world with a kind of Majora’s Mask level of people living their lives that you can manipulate and do a bunch of things with. That’s the cool thing.”

• Forza 6 Drift Hype:
  Nick ([12:07]):
  “This is the high-end, high-resolution Initial D game… just—oh man, I’m ready to drift down some mountains, baby.”

• Xbox’s Platform Philosophy:
  Damon ([22:11]):
  “You don’t need a Series X to play any of these games… We’re not trying to even sell you hardware anymore.”

• On Prince of Persia Remake Cancelation:
  Damon ([44:16]):
  “The game has been made… just remake that game with prettier graphics… that should be a layup for them.”

• Arcade Anecdotes:
  Sam ([53:41]), on Chiller:
  “It’s really cool and creative how this works, but obviously deeply coded in the slasher film era of horror movies.”

• Baldur’s Gate 3 Tips:
  Nick ([33:14]):
  “Usually near the end of an act… is when triggering a long rest could potentially lock you out of some content… red dead too, take advantage of those short rests too.”

• Carnival Games Sales:
  Damon ([83:46]):
  “According to Wikipedia, it is the 47th best selling Wii game…”

• Arcade “Blue Skies” Mentality:
  Justin ([55:36]):
  “Maybe Forza Horizon owes a lot to Outrun, I would say.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Xbox Developer Direct summary starts: [02:28]
  • Fable: [03:38] — Forza Horizon 6: [11:01]
  • Beast of Reincarnation: [16:46] — Kiln: [19:07]
• Xbox multiplatform discussion: [22:11]
• Games the panel is playing: [24:58]
• Baldur’s Gate 3 first impressions: [25:47]
• Ubisoft restructuring/cancellations: [41:42]
• Arcade anniversaries & retro: [49:30]
  • Listener show & tell: [62:13]
• Extracurricular (Tarantino Live, Fellowship): [64:25]
• TV show/cinema recs: [69:05]
• Video Game 20 Questions: [72:47] (Answer: Carnival Games)

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Tone and Style

• Warm, lively, familiar banter among gaming veterans—heavy with nostalgia, game design insights, and dry humor.
• Emphasizes moments of personal connection (both with fans and between panelists), touching on the enduring cultural value of retro gaming as well as the shifting sands of modern game industry business.

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This summary captures the breadth and vibe of Game Scoop! 841—perfect for anyone who missed the episode and wants an in-depth, time-coded breakdown of all the gaming news, community moments, and retro goodness.

Transcript

[Damon Hadfield]

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[Damon Hadfield]

What's up everybody? Welcome to IGN gamescoop. I'm your host Damon Hadfield. Joining me this week here in studio are Justin Davis Scoop and Nick Limone.

[Nick Limone]

I'm Back, baby.

[Damon Hadfield]

And Sam Claiborne joins us from his remote architect.

[Sam Claiborne]

I was in studio for a special episode of Game Scoop this week. This is not that episode.

[Damon Hadfield]

This is true.

[Nick Limone]

Not 100% special in my heart.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's right, actually, yeah. We recorded a special episode which I believe will be out next week. So please be excited for that. We've got a great show for you this week. Lots of fun stuff planned. Sam just started playing a game from recent years that many consider to be an all time classic. And I very much look forward to getting his initial thoughts on that. We've got some more news from Ubisoft that sort of continues. It's unfortunate news from Ubisoft. They've canceled a bunch of games, including a game that seems like it should have been a pretty easy layup for them. And I've got some arcade anniversaries, notable games with notable anniversaries. This year I've got just an incredible show and tell. So lots of fun stuff coming up. But first today was the Xbox Dev Direct developer direct. First one of the year. First big show of any of the three main three console manufacturers. And Sam, what you just said. Oh, God.

[Nick Limone]

What?

[Damon Hadfield]

What?

[Justin Davis]

What?

[Sam Claiborne]

I think Fable looks so good.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, Fable.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, I agree. I was like, what does Sam not like Fable? But no, it does look great.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, well, that's a good place to start.

[Sam Claiborne]

Absolutely. Bo. Blown away. Fable.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, so I want to. Before you give me your thoughts, I'm like 85 sold on it. I think it looks very cool, very promising from what we saw today. I wasn't getting the humor of Fable, but maybe that's hard to.

[Nick Limone]

You kick a chicken.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, yeah.

[Nick Limone]

It doesn't get any better than that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Chicken turned into the man hobby.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's called a hobby or something. Or hob.

[Justin Davis]

Is that what those.

[Nick Limone]

I think a hob. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Anyway, that's right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Goblin.

[Damon Hadfield]

Guess that's where I am. Tell us why you weren't so impressed, Sam.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, so they have not taken this series or really there hasn't been a series that has taken a swing at a big open world with a kind of Majora's Mask level of people living their lives that you can manipulate and do a bunch of things with. That's the cool thing.

[Damon Hadfield]

Like marry.

[Sam Claiborne]

And I think we. What's that?

[Damon Hadfield]

Apparently you can marry every NPC in the game.

[Justin Davis]

The fact that they're real NPCs have routines and have, you know, have their whole lives that they're living.

[Nick Limone]

Compared to oblivion.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, compared to like. Yeah, exactly. Compared to like, kind of like, you know, the. Even Skyrim had like, you know, some named NPCs, but a lot of like nameless villagers and stuff like that that are not simulating their lives yet.

[Nick Limone]

And it seems like there's that.

[Sam Claiborne]

And then I just think that it exudes style instead of just open world, like realism. Right. Like it's all like rounded, cool, weird mushroom buildings and, you know, little storybook areas. And I love the big vegetable area. And then just the whole concept of the Ender's game style giant falling and rotting across the landscape. Like all of that is like pointing to a. We just scratched the surface debate, really. In depth giant, open world fantasy rpg. Isn't that what we all want?

[Nick Limone]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

The actor playing the giant, I don't know his name, but he's. He was from the IT crowd, that guy. And. And I love him, so I'm not going to kill him. I'm going to try. At least I'm going to try not to.

[Nick Limone]

You're going to try to help him and then marry him?

[Damon Hadfield]

I guess I'm going to try to marry him, yeah. For sure.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. I think you're going to find out maybe he did. He did really horrible things or something and then make that choice.

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't care. The IT crowd wipes the slate clean. Nick, what do you think about Fable?

[Nick Limone]

I think it looks great. I was very skeptical going into this showcase. I was like, okay, what are we actually going to see here? But honestly, the thing that really won me over, apart from the gorgeous vistas and like Sam said, the very strong art direction, is the weight in movement and combat and stuff like that. It looks like every action has some sort of consequence whether you commit to an attack or not.

[Sam Claiborne]

Not.

[Nick Limone]

And the physics based stuff that I'm seeing, whether you have like a giant sledgehammer and you're flinging hobs all over the place, that's the type of combat I just deeply, deeply enjoy. It reminds me a lot of the same inertia of something like Shadow of the Colossus, which has its very distinct feel and weight to it that I think is just a thing that a lot of games don't do particularly well. And I was very surprised to see it here and I think it looks pretty fun.

[Justin Davis]

Yep, agreed. I mean, I think that we talked about this on the show last week maybe, but like, you know, the Fable games are not. They were not fully open world games. They were kind of like corridor based and you would go region to region and just have it be Sort of a big open world fantasy rpg. Like everything for a while was a witcher. Like and then suddenly, just as quickly as they appeared, that type of game just kind of disappeared. Right. And so to have it be back and have it be, you know, not take itself too seriously, that absolutely is up my alley.

[Damon Hadfield]

I do like this automatic crossbow.

[Nick Limone]

Apparently. That's pretty sick.

[Damon Hadfield]

That looks all right. And I want to knock around these little hog guys with my, with my hammer. That looks good.

[Justin Davis]

It looks pretty funny, dude. I mean it's not like, it's not like there's levels of humor. Like is it telling jokes or is it just kind of off kilter? Right. And it definitely has more of that vibe to it, Terry Pratchett style.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, it's looking good. It's looking very promising. It will be a small miracle though, this comes out. And it's good because it's been in development for so long and you know, it didn't suffer the fate of Perfect Dark. Right. It wasn't canceled. Playground games, a very talented studio, but they make racing games. You know, they never made a.

[Nick Limone]

They're good at open world racing.

[Damon Hadfield]

They are, they are too. Yeah. So anyway, I just if after all that they're actually, they're actually able to land the plane and it's just. This is as good as the fables we've all been hoped for.

[Sam Claiborne]

Small miracle.

[Justin Davis]

And it's not, I mean it's not Lionhead, right. Like this was the fable was Peter Molyneux franchise. And you know, it's never a sure bet to sort of baton past that to new studio, new team. Then they have to wrestle with some kind of hard questions about like what is the definite, like what makes a fable game a fable game. Right. And when you, when you have new leadership sort of making some of those decisions, it can be a little bit fraught. But like I'm, I'm very interested and impressed with what we got today.

[Damon Hadfield]

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[Nick Limone]

That was a big surprise for me.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, actually I think for sure all four of these games are in the Direct Direct are coming to you and PC. And PC. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

No word of any Switch two news, which is a little bit surprising too. I Think kiln. If nothing else could work on Switch 2. But anyway, let's stick with Forza Horizon 6 for a second. This game looks so good. Instantly became one of my most anticipated games of the year. I Love Forza Horizon 5. Maybe the only way to improve it is just to pick it up and just plop it into Japan.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I mean the Forza Horizon series, it feels, I mean I know that millions and millions of gamers like it, but it feels tailor made for me in the way that I engage with racing games. It's like I'm pretty casual and I mainly just like to jump in those games and screw around and actually sometimes my favorite thing to do is everything but the racing. Like you know, the tricks and the stunts and the, you know, the elimination, you know, challenges and like, you know, it's got that open world vibe of like just go anywhere and do all kinds of interesting fun little challenges and like. So really for me, like it's just about the setting and like the, the Japan setting just looks amazing. It couldn't possibly be more perfect.

[Nick Limone]

This, this is a scene that won me over right there where they're drifting down the mound with cherry blossoms. I'm like, this is the high end, like high resolution Initial D game that, you know, Initial D has been long dormant for a while. But get this. As long as the soundtrack has some Eurobeat like deja vu playing just oh man, I'm ready to drift down some mountains, baby.

[Damon Hadfield]

Sam, I know you were just in Japan, but I don't think you were. You were driving around the countryside though.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, not this time. I've taken trains to countryside. I would love to drive in Japan.

[Justin Davis]

I'm trying to think.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't. I had friends driving us around a lot in the countryside, but I didn't drive. But it looked very drivable and fun. I didn't play the last Horizon and I know it's like the best one, so I think this will go really well for me. I think it just looks like a game to look for you. Plus it's like what it's May, right?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's also summer games the best thing ever.

[Justin Davis]

Summer games are the best thing ever. It's so the Horizon series is so approachable in like, you know, look, if you want to be really hardcore, turn off the sim elements and you know, it never gets as hardcore as Forza. What are the non Horizon? Just Forza. It never gets like quite that hardcore. But if you literally do just want all, all the drive assists on, you can turn Them on too. And I usually end up landing somewhere in the middle. I also think like any single player racing game experience just needs to have a rewind feature at this point. Just like, oh, oops, nope, that didn't happen. Let's just go back 10 seconds and I'll take that again. And they're just chill, right. And so like just when I want to inhabit this space and just drive around like Nick, you and I were both saying like we're not massively graphics guys. But then we were watching this footage and it was like maybe we are.

[Nick Limone]

Graphics be looking pretty.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Damon Hadfield]

So yeah, I don't, I forget what the feature is called but in five, I like to turn on the like arrows on the track. So you absolutely like aim the drive assist. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just, it makes it so much more arcade.

[Nick Limone]

It turns it into an arcade game versus a sim game and the players have the luxury of toggling between the two, which is great. Honestly.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think it's really funny that they, they throw in like consumer cars like even if they're like, you know, from the 60s or something and they're cool looking but like they keep on like even the shot here they keep on showing like you know, just some like crappy like Mazda hatchback like racing alongside the cars. And I think that's like, I don't know why that stuff's in there. I think car people care and it's funny and everything but like I think I just, I just think it's hilarious.

[Nick Limone]

There's no greater joy than buying your first real life car in game and just getting to live experiences that I never got to experience in my 89 supra.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, 89 Pontiac Sunbird. Well, I'll have to find, find one of those. I think that was my first.

[Nick Limone]

Oh man, just look at the drifting inside. Like in Tokyo proper it looks like you saw like you know on the out like Kawaguchiko area or like just outside of Mount Fuji. So many cool like just idyllic locations. Hokkaido.

[Sam Claiborne]

This looks crazy confirmed.

[Nick Limone]

This is actually what Hokkaido looks like. We rented a car up there this past January and drove and it is.

[Sam Claiborne]

Basically a snow canyon.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Drive through and I love, you know, I mean the Japanese setting was leaked or rumored, you know, before it was kind of of officially announced. And it's one of those things of the moment I heard it, I'm like, oh that's perfect. Right? Like I hadn't thought about it ahead of time until I saw the rumors. And then you can just, it Instantly clicks into place. Like all the different car. Like the car culture that was so prominent there and just the variation in, you know, urban environments and rural environments and the drifting, you know, just the different vibe. Like, it's just. It's perfect. I mean, it's a perfect idea for where to take this franchise next.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, now my batteries are dead.

[Sam Claiborne]

Look at that station wagon just tearing down the hill.

[Nick Limone]

It's beautiful.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's so funny. Why? Why though? It's so funny.

[Justin Davis]

There they are.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's like seriously like a 1985 Subaru Outback.

[Justin Davis]

It is. It is very cute.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's so weird.

[Justin Davis]

I like that they do that. I don't care to talk about it on the show, but I like that they have these classes of events that kind of force you to race as these shitty cars.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. Get out of your comfort zone and try new stuff.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Nick Limone]

I do think that this game will be the. Like, I've always contemplated get going, like full sim and getting like a steering wheel and gas pedals. Maybe this will be the one I do it for.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, boy.

[Damon Hadfield]

Maybe you should play with that steel battalion controller.

[Nick Limone]

There you go.

[Damon Hadfield]

Foreshadowing. Okay. And then there was Beast of Reincarnation from Game Freak.

[Justin Davis]

It looks cool. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Speaking of games that aren't coming to Switch.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, exactly. Do Pokemon fans look at this and are like, what the heck?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's like, is this legal? Can Game Freak do this?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I think Pokemon fans at Nintendo say that.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. So the point I'm making is it looks, you know, much more visually advanced than anything we've seen from Game Freak before. It's not cartoonish. And also I don't play Pokemon games, But aren't they kind of known for being super buggy like some modern ones?

[Justin Davis]

I mean, not running super well has become the reputation over the last couple of years. I mean, it wasn't for a couple of years. Yeah, it's a little bit sad.

[Damon Hadfield]

So here we see something that's reminiscent of like Stellar Blade or what's.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

What? Wild hearts.

[Nick Limone]

Very evocative of like Nier to Nier.

[Damon Hadfield]

Like big third, third person action game, Japanese setting, fantasy monsters.

[Nick Limone]

It's just like, wow, like post apocalypse, very dark. All about loneliness. We have our main character. I think her name is Emma. She teams up with the wolf. Looks very cool. I like the mix of fantasy with the sci fi apocalypse. It looks neat.

[Sam Claiborne]

A little bit Final Fantasy, like with these leftover mechs everywhere. I think it's great. It's like after the war, but the War was giant mechs. Speaking of giant mechs, there was a Gundam in the end of that at the Fortune.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes. Was it actually a Gundam? I thought of the giant robot foot. I was just like, whoa.

[Nick Limone]

I mean I think if. Please explain. I think if they're gonna do. I think in Japan it's like. It's either Gundam or like Macross, but more people.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

I would argue in the US Know Gundam. So probably that.

[Justin Davis]

I think that the. That the Gundam sickos are like, I recognize that foot. Like, I think that's what's actually specifically.

[Sam Claiborne]

I didn't. I didn't see that. Yeah, exactly. The Gundam version of the Nike Swoop wasn't on the sneaker.

[Damon Hadfield]

Do you know what is a modern day. There's a modern day example of just master of licensing. Like they'll put their license anywhere and they usually do a pretty good job. And that's Toho and Godzilla.

[Nick Limone]

Yes, it's true.

[Damon Hadfield]

So do it. I guarantee you Xbox Touhou will allow you to put Godzilla into Forza rise to six.

[Nick Limone]

We contemplated here at the office buying the like 49 foot Pabst Blue Ribbon Godzilla collab that they have. It's just a giant.

[Damon Hadfield]

It comes with 99 cans of beer.

[Nick Limone]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's great. I love that thing.

[Damon Hadfield]

And the art in the cans is actually really cool. It's original artwork from.

[Justin Davis]

Cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

Very talented artist. That's cool. Okay. And then finally there's Kiln next from Double Fine. Sam just played a game from Double Fine that I don't think he was a super big fan of. But Killen is like, yeah, I don't think you like. No, I don't.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't like it. Yeah, but it was funny. I think Tim Schaefer called it Unhinged but chill on this Weird but chill in his little. Weird but chill. Yeah, it was very funny. And that's pretty good description.

[Damon Hadfield]

There must be like a directive, a double fine. Like if we're going to make a game, it can't look like any other game out there because every game that they put out is like, well, I've never. I've never seen anything that looks like this.

[Nick Limone]

Very distinct.

[Justin Davis]

I like that. Double Fine still seems to have some level of permission to just kind of do their thing. You know, they rarely. Fortnite rarely if ever missed. Yeah. And they got that. Yeah. Amnesia Fortnite. This was my. My favorite little anecdote about Kiln is that this game. They talked about this game in 2017 as you know, a little skunk works like yeah, we're working on this game called Kiln, and it wasn't in full production at the time, but it was exactly what, like, you know, you'll use a kiln to make your own little pot and, like, its shape and size will influence your, you know, how you move and how you behave. And then, you know, lo and behold, what, nine years later, like, yeah, we just did it. We made it for real this time.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. I mean, double fine. I do genuinely, like, I may not love all of the games they put out, but I love that they are something that, if a studio that is evocative of the early era of the PlayStation, where they're just putting out strange and interesting titles that may not be, you know, Blockbuster Video Games, but they're certainly interesting and there's nothing like them. And I'm glad they exist.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I mean, they have a good chance, you know, they'll be on. They'll be on Game Pass, so they have a good chance of, like, finding an audience. Like, you know, realistically, sad as it is, like, of this game or 20 bucks on Steam or on, you know, PSN or Xbox Store, like, it'd be a little bit challenging to imagine it would find an audience, but when everybody gets to try it, then the game can kind of have a chance to succeed on its own merits. And I hope it gives people, you know, I hope people feel like it's worth their time to sort of try a new experience.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think they missed an opportunity to put an apostrophe between the L and the N to make it look like killing.

[Nick Limone]

Killing.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, that would be pretty good.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you think that the.

[Justin Davis]

I can't.

[Sam Claiborne]

I couldn't tell. And this is a long segment, by the way, so I kind of like, you know, my eyes glazed over. But do you. Do you real time with your friends design your thing and then go beat each other up and break it? Because that would be like Rampart, and I think that's kind of fun. Or do you, like, do the design, you know, at home by yourself and then fight people later? That's what I'm curious about.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I guess it's unclear. Like, are you.

[Nick Limone]

Do you.

[Damon Hadfield]

Is there, like, a character creator and then you can go off and use that character multiple times over, or you make your character every time at every match?

[Justin Davis]

Because.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I think.

[Damon Hadfield]

I think that would probably get old after a few matches. Right.

[Nick Limone]

It would be kind of sick, though, to have, like, a perma death thing, though. Just lose your pottery.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. No, that's cool. It's like you got, you get 60 seconds to design a mug and then like you got to put it together and then you just go bash it. Like that's kind of fun. Yeah, but I don't think that's what it is.

[Justin Davis]

I don't know.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's interesting. We'll see. It's coming out this spring. So anyway, all four of these games are coming to PS5 and PC. So like these developer directs are like, they're also for PlayStation gamers now, but except, you know, Xbox just they announced they were doing this direct. Xbox developers direct. But then in the direct they're saying this is coming to PS5. This is so, I mean, I just think they should start saying it like make their announcement to everyone, not just Xbox gamers. Like, hey, PlayStation gamers, we're going to show you some new games coming to PS5 this year.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Because they're a publisher now, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, it's probably better from a marketing perspective, right?

[Damon Hadfield]

Still Again, I like my Series X, but you don't need a Series X to play any of these games.

[Nick Limone]

No, I will be playing all on PC.

[Damon Hadfield]

We're not trying to even sell you hardware anymore.

[Sam Claiborne]

But if you want to play it first for one of the games, you.

[Damon Hadfield]

Want to play one of these games first. There you go. I don't know, I'm not, I'm not mad about it. It's just interesting.

[Justin Davis]

Why are you so mad about it?

[Damon Hadfield]

I'm.

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[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, I mentioned last week I was playing Dispatch. I liked it a lot. I finished that. Great. I super recommend watching and playing through Dispatch. But you know, by the by like the eight episodes by like the back four episodes, I was really in a rhythm with that little real time strategy Dispatch game. I was really enjoying it.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, it's cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

I actually kind of wish there should be a way to keep playing that somehow after you finish the game.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, like a rogue like mode would go crazy for that.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, that'd be really good. You know, DLC or post launch content.

[Nick Limone]

Also, as someone who used to live in torrents, it's really cool that the game is set in torrents.

[Sam Claiborne]

Exactly.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I love it. Yeah, it's like that's right next door to me. Okay, so Dispatch is great. Sorry you pull up the B roll drill, but I wasn't going to spend much time on that. I wanted to get to Sam. Finally, finally, finally, finally started playing Baldur's Gate 3. So we have to hear his first impressions on that.

[Sam Claiborne]

And I hope there's not a game that will take my attention away from it for a little while. So when you start that game, there's this famous thing where Twilight Princess has this infinite tutorial that goes on for six or eight hours and you herd sheep, talk to everybody in town. You slowly work your way from probably a wood sword or something, I don't remember. And then there's this game where it's like, okay, you already have three rings worth of actions for everything. You have to learn how to dice roll. You don't know that you can highlight things to open them right away. They kind of tell you that later. Nothing's made clear to you should you do a side quest or not. You only find out once the thing kills you because you don't know what to do. There's gotta be a medium between those two types of game.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Baldur's Gate. I love that. It's one of my favorite games I've ever played in my life. But look, there's no denying that the onboarding for new. If you're just jumping into that game cold, it's easy to forget that it's a little bit tough in the opening hours. Yeah. It is daunting.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. There is an element of. I didn't discover the hot key for jumping until like 15 hours in. I was like, this changes.

[Sam Claiborne]

I know I've been pulling it out of a ring.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's ridiculous.

[Nick Limone]

I would. This doesn't happen often, but I highly recommend looking up the. Like a YouTube video. I think we have a great IGN things the game doesn't tell you guide about it and highly recommend it because there's a lot of things the game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Don'T tell you to the point because sometimes those are for like, once you're, you know, three or four or five hours in. I need to play a little bit more before I look up game help. So I. I'm. And I will do that, but it really doesn't make sense. I do have questions. So I have this quest to remove the brain slug from my head. Right. Like, that's like the overall thing. There's no waypoint. I like that. I think that's kind of neat. Like, you got to figure your stuff out. But I do keep on stumbling across side quests and they're all kicking my ass. So it's like, should I not be doing side quests until I do some main quest?

[Nick Limone]

You should be doing every side quest. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. The game will kick your ass. But I think it's just a matter of Elden Ring.

[Sam Claiborne]

You don't do that. You're like, you should not be going in this area right now. But this game is not telling me.

[Nick Limone]

There's very. There's very little areas you don't belong in in the act. Unless you are in a, like a late game dungeon.

[Justin Davis]

Well, you maybe should be like, you're literally like, day one. You played it last night, Sam.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. So if you're that early, I don't know how many companions you have yet. Like, you should get a full party and then two. Yeah. So you should get a full party. You maybe can get one more party member and then you might be powered up enough to start doing some side quests and you should probably go seek out if you haven't found them. You should find some bandits that are. That are trying to. What are they trying to do? Break into.

[Nick Limone]

Break into a big wall.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, break into a big wall or like an abandoned church area. And there you can probably.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I'm in the middle of that. So I got the people out front to scatter with some kind of warlock thing that I had, and I went inside and then I killed the first person because she attacked me. But I wanted to be more smart and talky. And then I went to the next room and, like, four people killed everybody.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. So I. I remember. It's.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's.

[Justin Davis]

I. I thought I cheated that battle and I thought I cheesed it, but then what. What you're actually doing is. No, this is just. The whole game is, you know, take advantage of your environment. What I did was I put all my guys on one side of a door and then I let them. I let them come to me through the door. And I don't mean the whole game is like door games. Like. Yeah, I just mean, like, really taking advantage of your environment and, you know, getting elevation on people and, like, you know, manipulating line of sight and manipulate. Hey, they're not going to be able to reach me this turn because they're too far away. Like choke points. Yeah, choke points.

[Sam Claiborne]

But I'm also realizing that it's like a. It's like a total save game. Like, you need to save before you do everything.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, you can do that if you're.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's what I would do.

[Justin Davis]

If you're really stuck, like, you're truly stuck, you can definitely quick save abuse. Like, quick save and then, like, wait till you get a.

[Nick Limone]

Try something out.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, like. But like, use. Use grease. Use. It's also not a game to hoard.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't even know what that means.

[Justin Davis]

No, like, what do you mean, use? Like, there's. Well, you might not have any in your inventory yet, but there's like, literal jars of grease that you can. That you can throw to, like, trip. Like, enemies will trip over it. But like, what I mean by that is, like, anything that's in your inventory, don't hoard it. Use it all.

[Nick Limone]

Like, you got a bottle of water, throw it on the floor and shock it.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah. So it's got that bioshock sense. Or freeze the bottle of water.

[Nick Limone]

Or freeze.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

You know, so stuff. Stuff like that.

[Nick Limone]

Dip your swords in the torches, catch them on fire so you can set motion.

[Sam Claiborne]

I was like, what the fuck?

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

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[Justin Davis]

If you dip your weapon in fire, then it's just free damage anytime you use that weapon.

[Nick Limone]

Free real estate.

[Justin Davis]

And. But. And. And you don't even need to. It's like, well, I don't have any fire.

[Sam Claiborne]

I also d. Standing in fire, but I didn't Know that that was happening.

[Justin Davis]

So the dip action is like, for example, like I said, you can dip your weapon in fire and that deals bonus damage. And people are like, oh, that's neat. But the Baldur's Gate difference is like, but you can carry a candle with you for the whole game and then just set it on the ground and then you always have access to that. So it's like the game says yes to everything that you try. And that's really hard in the beginning. Like, you will get your ass kicked, but you eventually kind of get a sense of like, oh, like, I can. I can knock this. This chandelier down onto the guy.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, focus on environment.

[Nick Limone]

More focus on environment. I'd say just take some time to look at all of the different commands that are available to you and be like, oh, what's throw? How does that work?

[Justin Davis]

Like, you can pick up like. Like the game just says yes to everything. Like, if you don't have the strength, you can't do this. But if you have a high strength character, you can just pick them up. You can pick them up, throw them into a pit. Like, it just lets you do everything.

[Damon Hadfield]

Are you playing on Steam Deck, Tim?

[Sam Claiborne]

Is that possible? No, I'm playing on my series.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean, it is. Yeah, it's available on Steam, so it does.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't think it would run.

[Nick Limone]

It does work on Steam Deck, although I have heard that Act 3, it starts to get a little bit choppy.

[Damon Hadfield]

Got it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, okay. I would not expect this game to run on that. That's surprising to me.

[Justin Davis]

I played it on my Mac and it ran well, man.

[Nick Limone]

Just seeing this footage, I'm like, dude, do I want to do another run?

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, that's what I was just going to say. So I actually fired this up two nights ago on Tuesday because there's nothing new coming out. Looking, just playing completely random things. I never finished this. There more batteries over there. Okay. Nick's battery's out now, so I never finished it. So I pulled my save 60 hours in Act 2, and I'm just kind of like staring at the screen like, okay, who are these people? What am I doing? How does it all control? I'm in these dark lands. The darkness hurts me. I have to find light and I just couldn't do it.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

So, Sam, I'll just start over. I'll play along with you.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, sounds so great.

[Sam Claiborne]

Start from the beginning because then I can actually ask you about the actual questions I had.

[Justin Davis]

The one, my last piece of sort of ad hoc game help Advice would be to long rest a lot. You know, you have a sense.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I just figured that out.

[Justin Davis]

It costs you resources and it costs you money and you feel like you have.

[Sam Claiborne]

But I like that because you like, use two breads and a fish or whatever.

[Justin Davis]

It is cute. But the game narratively feels like there's this time pressure. Like, oh, if I don't long, I can't long rest a lot because, you know, the growth.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, because of the brain slug.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, and the brain slug and other stuff. But. But the reality is long resting triggers cutscenes and advances. It doesn't advance time. I don't know, it's a little bit hard.

[Nick Limone]

Advances a lot of inter party stories. So your party members will have character arcs and like side quest stuff that gets progressed in those long rest. But thing that you need to be mindful of is usually near the end of an act is what. And you've got a long way to go before you get to an end of an actual. Is when triggering a long rest could potentially lock you out of some content. So it's very. It's very rare that it's required. But once you understand how a long rest kind of works functionally, you get a good idea of like, okay, I shouldn't long rest here, or I should. But also take advantage like Red Dead too. Take advantage of those short rests too.

[Justin Davis]

It is similar. It is similar to Red Dead. That's a good analogy. Like, but when you.

[Sam Claiborne]

So yeah, I rolled a character and it's a. A blue lady that looks like. Like an Andorian from Star Trek. And then I believe a warlock.

[Nick Limone]

A drow warlock. Huh.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, that sounds pretty sick.

[Nick Limone]

Dark elf warlock.

[Sam Claiborne]

I have no idea. I have no idea. I have some kind of like eldritch attack.

[Nick Limone]

Eldritch blast.

[Sam Claiborne]

The most functional Eldritch blast.

[Justin Davis]

Incredible. Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Once you level up, highly recommend the. The upgrade to that. That lets you push people off cliffs.

[Sam Claiborne]

I got that. Yep. That's very funny.

[Nick Limone]

It rules.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, well, I'm still getting rolled, but it sounds like I didn't do anything wrong yet.

[Damon Hadfield]

You have Shadowheart.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's the lady who bangs. Yeah, yeah, I have her. I would also saved her from a pod.

[Nick Limone]

Highly recommend respecing her as soon as you have the ability to. The class that she's paired with at the beginning of the game is, I would argue, the worst class in the game.

[Justin Davis]

I bet. I mean, you know, the game. The game is tough. It's tough at first before you have your skills, but if you're. If you're feeling it especially tough. It's. You just get. Find another party member and you'll be all right. Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

I tried to pull a guy out of a rock, but it didn't work.

[Justin Davis]

Oh.

[Nick Limone]

Oh.

[Sam Claiborne]

That would have been my other part of my.

[Justin Davis]

Go back and go back.

[Nick Limone]

He's pretty good. Did his arm fall off?

[Sam Claiborne]

I wasn't. It was stupid. It was like a gated thing. It was like, you need to roll, like, more than a four. And I didn't. Twice.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. That's like.

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[Sam Claiborne]

This is what's not cool about dice games. Right.

[Justin Davis]

If you have a save from before that you might want to.

[Sam Claiborne]

I do.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. You might want to. You might want to redo that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

All right.

[Damon Hadfield]

And then Nick just finished.

[Sam Claiborne]

But that's surprising, right? That it. Let me blow past that.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

You just. Nick just finished Bald Skate three, right?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, just finished it, man. Well, all timer. It's very good. And then you went right on.

[Damon Hadfield]

And you played the Resident Evil 3 remake.

[Nick Limone]

Well, I. I did a RE2 OG. RE2 remake. RO3 OG. RE3 OG and then RE3 remake.

[Justin Davis]

You're deep in it?

[Nick Limone]

Because I'm all in on Raccoon City, man. Yeah, I. I love it.

[Justin Davis]

I got bad news for you.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you think re2 remake is better still?

[Nick Limone]

3 remake?

[Sam Claiborne]

2 remake is better than 3? Because it's just a little bit.

[Nick Limone]

I do think 2 remake is an overall more enjoyable game, and I think you get more bang for your buck. That said, though.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Re 3 remake. I think I was mad about it at the time the game came out because I spent $64 on it. And I think, you know, not to associate a cost with a runtime of the game, but I think Capcom kind of gets it a little bit for this game because they paired it with a multiplayer mode that no longer exists. So that's how they justified the. The ratio. But that said, honestly, all the stuff people were complaining about that they cut for the RE3 remake, after playing, I was like, that's fine. You cut the clock tower. Not a big deal. That's fine. I think that this game is just balls to the wall the entire time. It is just such a thrilling joyride. Yes. There's a lot of linear sequences and stuff, but it just looks so damn good in the RE engine. It looks so good. And, like, Jill is fantastic. Her chemistry with Carlos is just. Yeah, it's so good.

[Damon Hadfield]

We've been. We've been spending a lot of time with Jill lately for a project you'll be hearing about. Very soon. So that has made me want to revisit The Resident Evil 3.

[Nick Limone]

This game rocks, man. RE3 remake rules so hard. And it's the perfect like bite sized Speedrun game. Because I think when I finished my run on Hardcore I was like, like 3 hours and 50 minutes. And now that I know exactly what I need to do, I think I can get under two hours.

[Damon Hadfield]

And Justin, anything you've been playing?

[Justin Davis]

I've been here all week so I'm kind of between games. But I did rediscover and I have been playing Monster Train because it's on Apple Arcade. That was my plane game on the way out and I've been playing a run or two at night before I go to bed. I don't have anything new to say about it. Like that game ruled before. It still rules. I like that. I think it's still on Game Pass. Like it's on Game Pass. It's on Apple Arcade. It's often on sale on Steam. Like I think Damon, you said. I don't, I don't remember. Like I don't know if it's a hot take anymore. That it might surpass Slay the Spire as like the roguelike deck builder.

[Damon Hadfield]

I. I personally like it more and even though I love Slay the Spire as well, I know Nick's not going to get on this train with it.

[Nick Limone]

I. I love. I will hop on the Monster Train with you, but I can only go so many stops. I love Monster Train, don't get me wrong. I think I just really enjoy the path making and I think the orange. I think Slay the Spire is a harder game and I enjoy that about it.

[Sam Claiborne]

You guys should try Balatro, it's really good.

[Justin Davis]

And so we. Yeah, I've been in LA all week, but when I get home, the other thing that I'm playing right now is me and my family started a Minecraft world and so I've been having fun with my daughters and bonding with them over that. So that's what I'm doing.

[Nick Limone]

They're gonna be in like the space age by the time.

[Justin Davis]

Well, yeah, except it's not. It's not a Minecraft realm. It's a multiplayer. Like they can't play with that.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, there you go.

[Justin Davis]

So yeah, they're stuck with it.

[Sam Claiborne]

I had a playing game as well which was an extracurricular activity which is that I watched half of Tron Ares on the way down and they didn't have it. So on the way back I watched half of a Spinal Tap too.

[Nick Limone]

Just Pretend they're the same movie.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it was just kind of processing my day after that. I was like, that was weird.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Which one seems better?

[Sam Claiborne]

Probably Spinal Tap 2. But they're both. Both pretty. Pretty mediocre, but not. But. But totally watchable. I mean, Tron is a Jared Leto strange vehicle where they bring, you know, the world of Tron into the reality, but only personally sortily explain that with like a laser where they have to always be dragging around a laser to print a motorcycle.

[Justin Davis]

The movie just came and went.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah, it did well, that's why I was looking at it. I was like, did I watch this? Did I see this movie? Did this come out? You know, like. But no, it's the red one. People that don't know. It's a great soundtrack.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, it's not actually.

[Sam Claiborne]

It is a cool as hell soundtrack. That's not my thing either. But it sounded great.

[Justin Davis]

When I first started at ign, the Tron was Ares. The last one.

[Nick Limone]

Legacy.

[Justin Davis]

Tron Legacy. The Tron Legacy soundtrack was my right.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's Daft Punk.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Yeah. I would write to that soundtrack basically almost every single day, actually.

[Nick Limone]

D res is an all timer track.

[Damon Hadfield]

Keep trying to make.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's a. How did this get made situation with Tron Ares?

[Justin Davis]

Like.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, seriously, like, it is a big Disney movie that nobody was ever going to watch. I just cannot believe it.

[Damon Hadfield]

They keep. They got to stop trying to make Jared Leto the lead of movies. He's just not. He's not a box.

[Justin Davis]

He's not. Not pretty.

[Sam Claiborne]

If he's a fan of the show, I think, whatever.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean, it's a fairly open secret that Jared Leto's Big Tony style.

[Nick Limone]

But dude, you doxed him on the podcast. Because it's. My dad taught me a lot, including.

[Damon Hadfield]

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[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, moving on, moving on. Headline from this week, Ubisoft cancels six projects, including the Prince of Sands of Time remake, closes two studios and confirms further layoffs in major company restructure.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, shocking news, right?

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, Ubisoft.

[Justin Davis]

I guess not shocking because maybe it's not super surprising, but definitely, you know.

[Damon Hadfield]

Sad news also that Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake looks to have been delayed.

[Justin Davis]

Well, it's one of the rumored, you know, they delayed unannounced games and most people are speculating that that's one of them.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, but I mean, don't cut that one.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, it just feels like we've talked about it on the show off and on for years. If it takes Ubisoft four or five years and thousands and thousands of people across multiple studios around the world to put out a game and it's like, you know, that's not, you can't. The bill has come due of like we've been saying for years, how do they keep getting away with this? And it's like it turns out that they're not.

[Damon Hadfield]

They can't keep getting away with this.

[Justin Davis]

But it's like when you, when you have, like when selling 10 million copies of your game is not enough, it's like you have to, you have to figure out a different way to do business.

[Damon Hadfield]

They. But they used to, they used to have it figured out and we used to complain about it, that there would be a new Assassin's Creed every year.

[Justin Davis]

That's true.

[Damon Hadfield]

But they did have a, they had a pipeline.

[Sam Claiborne]

Watchdogs.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, they had a pipeline and they were able to get out multiple games a year. And now it's just like, where are the Ubisoft games and the one, the ones they put out like Avatar and Star Wars Outlaws. Although we like Star Wars Outlaws, it didn't sell as well as it, I.

[Sam Claiborne]

Mean, people like Avatar, that game is, has come into its own.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, that game is very pretty. It's gorgeous. One of the best looking games on PC. But then you get stuff like Prince of Persia, Lost Crown, which are critically acclaimed and they just. Nope, not good enough. Let's just shutter it.

[Sam Claiborne]

But that one can't be that expensive though, right? It's like a little. They should be making these tiny games as supplemental games.

[Justin Davis]

It's sort of like these Hollywood movie Studios of like their bets are so big that it's like, you know, two or two and a half flops in a row can just completely hose you and your business. Right.

[Nick Limone]

And it's through no fault of the developers. It's such a bummer. It's just poor decision making from the executive sides.

[Justin Davis]

Well and when.

[Sam Claiborne]

Or good decision making that just when you take six years to make it to make a game, the decision has to happen six years ago. Right. That's predict that Rian Johnson's going to make everybody mad about Star Wars.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, no, totally like market condition. When, when your development cycles are that long, you know you're throwing a dart like this is what gamers are going to want. Not now, but six years from now when our game is coming out. It's like that's a very, very top tough place to be.

[Damon Hadfield]

But even so like a remake of a beloved game like Prince of Persia.

[Nick Limone]

Stands of time.

[Damon Hadfield]

That should be pretty.

[Nick Limone]

The, the game has been made.

[Damon Hadfield]

You know, I mean just, just remake that game with prettier graphics. Everyone's gonna be like, I have. It's 20 years old now. Oh, I have such great nostalgia for this. Like that should be a layup for them. I don't know why that's.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's the thing is that that should be the turnkey. That should be. That should be the layup as you're saying not. And it should just kind of come and go. It shouldn't be like there's three games we know about in development, full stop and this is one of them. Like that's the weirdest thing about this, you know, like this would have been their filler. Just like, just like the last Prince of Persia was in some year where they had a giant update to one of their online games like Rainbow Six or whatever. And then they also had a Assassin's Creed. And it's just, it's just. Yeah, it's just weird. It's weird.

[Justin Davis]

Like we're watching footage of it. If you're listening to the show, we're looking at the remake. You know, the trailer that was announced. It's like this, like just put this. Release it. Like the Prince of Persia existed. Just put this out. What? It's very strange, I will say. I mean we've talked about it on the show before that like cancel games. We're always sad when games are canceled. Like it always feels sad. But then you always have to kind of check yourself and remember. It's like. Well, but products do get canceled for a reason and it's like, you know, Fable and Forza Horizon aren't being canceled. They're coming out. Right. So it's like, you know, there's us as consumers and as fans and enthusiasts. We just love video games and we like the hype of them being announced and coming out. But the flip side is then, you know, we don't know. We don't know about were they troubled, were they behind schedule, were they expensive, were they not coming together? Like, you can maybe extend Ubisoft a little bit of grace of like, well, you know, maybe the canceled projects were canceled for a reason and.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, but then, I mean. Okay, but they don't have other games coming out.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

And if we look to their counterparts in Japan, if you look to Capcom and Square Enix, they're still doing it, putting out multiple games a year. And Capcom's like, putting out better games than it ever has in its company history.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, they've unlocked the secret formula.

[Justin Davis]

That's very true. I mean, and they did. I don't have that news story in front of me, but, like, Ubisoft lowered their financial guidance, some insane, like, $300 million. They took it down something along those lines this morning. Yes. So, you know, like, undeniably bad news. You know, this. So I, I, you know, I'm not trying to spin it as anything other than bad news. It, it is, it is alarming, for sure.

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't know.

[Justin Davis]

It's.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, that, that Assassin's Creed, like, set in Europe or whatever with witches that's rumored. Sounds awesome.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, it does sound awesome.

[Sam Claiborne]

Can we make that one?

[Justin Davis]

Okay?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

And they did what? They realigned themselves in these, like, four or five business units that are like, what one's focused on, like the division. I mean, I know it's not just the division team, but, like, they focus themselves around. They have like a shooter, you know, business unit now and an open world fantasy game division now and like, one division that's doing like, the Annos and like the fantasy games and Assassin's Creed. So it's like when I saw that structure, I'm like, you know, whatever. I don't know, I'm not, I'm not an industry analyst, but, like, that made sense to me with regard to, like, how to kind of orient their business for the future. So. But like, you just look at the credits of these games and they've just seemed bloated for a while. And I don't know what, I don't know about how hard it is to put together and produce a game. Like Assassin's Creed Shadows, but just. Just when it's hundreds and hundreds and thousands of skilled artists and developers. It's like that. That just. It does not seem sustainable for a while.

[Nick Limone]

Speculative on my side as well. Just, I'm. I'm curious how the Saudi Arabia potential acquisition kind of plays into all of this as well.

[Justin Davis]

It was Tencent, wasn't it?

[Nick Limone]

Oh, Tencent, yes. Sorry.

[Damon Hadfield]

Saudi is EA.

[Nick Limone]

EA.

[Damon Hadfield]

I have the details here. So the four creative houses. Creative House 1 will be handling Assassin's Creed.

[Justin Davis]

Far Cry.

[Damon Hadfield]

Rainbow 6. Creative House 2 will be dedicated to shooters and they'll look after the division, Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell. I don't know why Rainbow Six wouldn't be in there with that. Creative House 3 will focus on live experiences like for Honor, the Crew, Riders, Republic, Skull and Bones. And then Creative House 4 will feature a narrative driven and fantasy series including Anno Might and Magic Rayman. Prince of Persia, Beyond Good and Evil. Apparently that is still uncanceled. Well, Evil 2 is still not canceled, at least not publicly announced to be canceled.

[Justin Davis]

And there is a fifth one I'm remembering now that's like casual games, like just dance and stuff like that, you know? So, I mean, again, like on the outside looking in, not an analyst, but like that structure makes sense, right? It feels like maybe they're like they just had to tear this band aid off to set themselves up for future success is maybe the rosy way to think about it. But man, rough year for Ubisoft.

[Damon Hadfield]

Rough couple years.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, Nick, now with the Prince of Persia Sands of Time remake canceled, we should probably do it. Is it still fun on fans of Time?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, that's a. That's a good call.

[Justin Davis]

Easy, easy.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes, great. Great idea. Maybe not. I. I don't know. I don't know if that's.

[Damon Hadfield]

Maybe we'll find out. Well, actually, this. Actually, this is a very fun movie.

[Nick Limone]

Are you gonna make me play through Warrior within the Two Thrones and then the Wii game?

[Sam Claiborne]

There's a lot of rooms with like two enemies that you fight over and over again. You know, like that is a thing.

[Nick Limone]

And then we gotta watch the Jake Gyllenhaal Disney movie.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, boy.

[Sam Claiborne]

Heck yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, here's some notable arcade anniversaries happening this year. And I got all these from a site called Arcade Heroes, which is a fun site. It's run by a guy who owns. He runs an arcade somewhere. Sam. This is where I find out when all like a new interesting pinball machine is being revealed. I would decide Site arcade heroes. Anyway, a couple games turning 50 this year. Arcade games turning 50? Yes. Everyone's gonna start feeling old 50 years ago. So 1976 was breakout. Good game. Which I only.

[Sam Claiborne]

Apple related.

[Damon Hadfield]

I only ever played on my Atari 2600. I don't think I've ever played Breakout in the arcade.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's cool. That has a. It has a. So it's black. It's a black and white monitor.

[Damon Hadfield]

Right.

[Sam Claiborne]

So it's before color. But they put. Because it's like Breakout has like yellow, red and blue bricks. They put a cellophane tint on the screen in plastic so it colors those brick layers and they score differently. So it's just really clever.

[Justin Davis]

That's cool. 7076 is interesting because that's very, very early. Like, I mean, famously like space invaders is 77. Right. And that was kind of the start of like 78. Yeah. Oh, really?

[Damon Hadfield]

I always say the atari VCS was 77.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. Got it. It.

[Damon Hadfield]

So yeah, it's before there's even a major home console. The Magnavox odyssey was early 70s, so. But before Atari had a major home console. So yeah, Breakout and then another one from this year was be the. The first game to cause a. A controversy over video game violence.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, Death Race.

[Justin Davis]

Death Race.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. I just played Death Race at the Museum Mechanique two weeks ago, which is really funny. It's still there, still kicking there.

[Nick Limone]

That's a little steering wheel setup, right?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. And you drive over Gremlins, but they look very humanoid.

[Justin Davis]

And of course.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, that, that's. This is what the controversy over there. It looks.

[Sam Claiborne]

This game's basically the same as. There's some game that Sprint, I think, Super Sprint. There's some game that they just kind of modified to. To do this is in the same cabin. Everything Stunt racer.

[Nick Limone]

I didn't realize the Gremlins were Christian.

[Damon Hadfield]

Now when you run over that Gremlin, crucifix is left in their place.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, this is all related to like the trucker craze and Death Race and stuff like that. Right. It's like all about like. This was like a joke at the time, like points for killing people. Yeah, well, driving like that was like a pop culture thing.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's from Exity, which is a company we'll hear about again a little later. And they. They totally leaned into the controversy. They lended the idea that they could get interest in their game because of the controversy.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Smart.

[Justin Davis]

That playbook is still being executed to this day.

[Damon Hadfield]

Wasn't new in 1976. And not going anywhere. Okay. 40 years old. So 1986 and man, what a year. I haven't even. I haven't even collected all of them here. I just. I just sort of like cherry picked them. But what's interesting is that Arkanoid is this year. So Breakout and Arkanoid were 10 years apart.

[Justin Davis]

Cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

And I think Arkanoid is, you know, probably a little bit more thought of more. A little bit more fondly than Breakout because it added lots of bells and whistles.

[Sam Claiborne]

The arcade version ramps up real fast though. There's some pretty tough stuff that happens. So it's not as fun as like, like the home versions of these games were like, like Alleyway or whatever. Just have a lot more replayability and a lot more fun.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Speaking of home versions of the games, Bubble Bobble hit arcades in 86.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's going to bring up Bubble Bobble. Yeah, that's such a good 86 game.

[Damon Hadfield]

And then another one from Exidy, same company behind Death Race was chiller. Chiller was 1980.

[Nick Limone]

Man, they're all in on controversy.

[Justin Davis]

That's funny.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. So. So Chiller was a platform and they.

[Damon Hadfield]

Can'T say these are gremlins once Chiller.

[Sam Claiborne]

Are we gonna show it? We're gonna show Chiller.

[Damon Hadfield]

I hope, I hope Jober can show Chiller.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's pretty scandalous.

[Nick Limone]

Are we gonna get flagged?

[Sam Claiborne]

XID made a platform of, you know, like gun based light gun games. This is a light gun game in the arcade and they made one called Crossbow, which is fine conversion you could do. And then one called Turkey Shoot. But yeah, you have to like kind of figure. It's almost like a. What would you call it? Like a. A puzzle where you search for like a thing in it. Like you have to find. You have to look around and find things and then kind of link them together by shooting limbs off and stuff. It's. It's really cool and creative how this works, but obviously deeply coded in the slasher film era of horror movies.

[Damon Hadfield]

Someone who always loved horror on Friday the 13th. Like I was fascinated with this game and I had to seek it out there. There's an unlicensed NES port and I was able to rent it from like this mom and Pop. Yeah, this mom and pop video store that I had never been to before, but they had it so I rented it.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

And it was pretty cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

They made this game on this platform. The Turkey Shoot game has a little below the screen, below the monitor, behind the glass, there's a bunch of feathers and then it has like a little air pump and it goes poof. You shoot the turkeys and like feathers fall in front of you while you're playing the game.

[Justin Davis]

That's amazing.

[Sam Claiborne]

Smart stuff. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nice. Okay. Also 1986 was Darius, the first Darius with the triple monitors, the ultra wide screen.

[Sam Claiborne]

So that was one of the ultra wide ones, was it? Yeah, like that And Ninja.

[Damon Hadfield]

Ninja Warriors.

[Justin Davis]

Ninja warriors.

[Damon Hadfield]

Right from the beginning they were doing that. I love how arcade operators would have to come up with different ways to get attention on their game. Right. Because it's in a crowded arcade.

[Sam Claiborne]

Darius had a bunch of sequels, right?

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

As Darius twins.

[Damon Hadfield]

G Darius.

[Nick Limone]

I mean there's always a Darius game. When I walk into like a Japan game center, I was like, I gotta play on the three screen.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Damon Hadfield]

G. Darius was on PlayStation 1 game. Still one of my favorite shooters of all time.

[Sam Claiborne]

This is great.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. And then Akari warriors was this year also had like its own interesting control style where you could, you know, the rotary joysticks.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. A little barrel.

[Damon Hadfield]

And I had the NES port, which I just, I loved and loved as a kid, but I've since learned as an adult, mostly through Jeremy Parrish, that it's just a horrible game.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Really corny.

[Justin Davis]

Right?

[Sam Claiborne]

There's. There's three of them. They don't really have much.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's just a very, very frustrating slog. Outrun was 1986.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, man.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Very, very iconic Sega game. First there's a soundtrack. First of all.

[Sam Claiborne]

Beautiful.

[Justin Davis]

Yep. Still very, still very playable. Still very approachable to this day at time. It's a little bit. Maybe Forza Horizon owes a lot to Outrun, I would say.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

I think it's a vibe it's going.

[Justin Davis]

For, especially I mean with the fame, with the slogan, you know, it's a driving game, not a racing game. Right.

[Sam Claiborne]

I would draw a line from like, like yeah, totally arcade racing. I would draw a line from this. Just this aesthetic and the cabinet and everything to Sonic. Like it has this kind of like bright, crazy turn. Turn of the 90s vibe.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Color palette.

[Nick Limone]

Blue skies, man. Idyllic blue skies.

[Damon Hadfield]

And also amazing. Not a three, not a 3D game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And you're driving with a lady in your car.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's so funny.

[Nick Limone]

The dream of every. And then you crash it every 11 year mole.

[Damon Hadfield]

Neither you flies out of the car. She just kind of like she gets mad at you if you crash. So it's outrun. And then also 1996 rampage was that. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

Amazing multiplayer game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Really Advanced feeling when that hit the arcades, because it just looked amazing. Also, turn the tables.

[Damon Hadfield]

Let you be the giant monster. You're the Kaiju. You can pick up people and eat them.

[Nick Limone]

Just climb the. Climb their skyscraper and pull them out of their apartment and eat them.

[Justin Davis]

Love it. And the people eating them healed their health. Did it?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Unless you ate one that had, like, a flamethrower.

[Sam Claiborne]

So from Gauntlet onwards, they were making quarter munchers that became the kind of brawler things where you. You could both put in quarters, you earn twice as much, you're playing at the same time, and then you have some kind of, like, shared goal that's a little bit competitive. Like, that became the way that people played arcade games. And then Street Fighter, of course, was five years later. But this was really the start of that. They're like, people don't want to play Pac man anymore. How do we get people to just shove a bunch of quarters in these games? This was a smart idea.

[Justin Davis]

Yep. Letting two people play at once will make twice as much money.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep. Midway couple.

[Damon Hadfield]

This also had an NES port. A couple more Night Shade sticks. Salamander was this year, which we would know as Life Force.

[Justin Davis]

Cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

Konami.

[Justin Davis]

You've only ever played it on the nes, I bet.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Well, now I have the greatest. The recent greatest collection.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, it just came out year last, like, few months ago last year.

[Damon Hadfield]

So I. I played it on there. And then finally, not a game itself, but the Play Choice 10 system out in.

[Justin Davis]

Cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

Which is just.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And that would have been total marketing for the NES.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. I mean, that's where I played like, Goonies 2 and like, maybe Goonies 1. Popeye would have had its own dedicated cabinet, right?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Did the play choice.

[Sam Claiborne]

If you hold on for a second, I can show you something fun from the play choice that I have behind me here.

[Justin Davis]

I don't think.

[Damon Hadfield]

Probably because I did play it in Arcade first.

[Justin Davis]

Mario 3.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, wow.

[Nick Limone]

How often. Because how often did it get cycled, the games in and out on it?

[Justin Davis]

Whenever there's.

[Nick Limone]

There's got to be a Jeremy Parish video about it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, here we go. Here we go. I think I saw. Dude.

[Sam Claiborne]

All right. Putting in my headphones. One second.

[Nick Limone]

Okay. Some buried treasure.

[Damon Hadfield]

Sam is for our listeners. Sam is. Has something to show the class.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I have a show and tell. I know Damon has one too, but. Yeah. Behind me, I have a play choice machine. So the play choices with a little box. And in the box, they had a little marquee for each as my brother's three. So my lower row is attached to the game. So you're not going to see that row. But I have these for all the games. I collect these too. So there's the goodies. And you see, you can see they say new, right? Each one. So they're really. They're really. And by the way, Mario's Open Golf. That is not the name of that.

[Justin Davis]

Game in on yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Combat for any S then the Mega Man 3 is pretty rare. And I have that signed by KJ.

[Nick Limone]

Wow, that's cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

See the signature?

[Damon Hadfield]

Hold up. They put Yo Noid. They put yo noid on a PlayChoice 10.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, they certainly did.

[Nick Limone]

Sam is holding up annoyed.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

The one you were supposed to avoid played.

[Sam Claiborne]

I also. I have a second play choice that's app free Gold Watch in the Hay Ashbury. And so I saw the games in that one a lot. And if anybody's in town, they should check that out because the versions of those games are slightly different. So if you play Punch out in. That actually has like a battery high score that saves your scores. That didn't come that way on the nes.

[Nick Limone]

That rocks.

[Sam Claiborne]

Any interesting. Sorry for the diversion. But yeah, that's right.

[Damon Hadfield]

Not at all. So obviously the mid-80s, incredible time in arcades. But when you get into the mid-90s, 96, 30 years ago, it's a little. Things are a little quieter. We did get X Men versus Street Fighter that year. Dungeons and Dragons Shadows over Mystara, which I wouldn't have guessed. Is that late. That actually feels a little bit late.

[Sam Claiborne]

Great.

[Nick Limone]

Beat him up.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Damon Hadfield]

And Battle Gara Man.

[Justin Davis]

Battle Ga Man. There is a. If someone wanted to argue that that's the greatest shmup of all time, I don't think I would argue back. I think I'd say yeah, yeah. I mean, I might. I don't. I'd have to think about it. It might be number one.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's really good.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

You know the name of the developer. It's such a great Japanese name. 8ing. 8ing.

[Justin Davis]

No, I wouldn't have clocked that.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

And then finally, this is where as far as arcade heroes went. 25 years ago, 2001, Konami's Bimini series first appeared. Oh yeah, dude. Of course, you know, they had DDR. But is Bimani the one where you just. You tap buttons in time with music.

[Justin Davis]

That just basically is it only buttons only?

[Nick Limone]

I think so.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's like Beat Mania, right?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

And then also 2001 was Ikaruga.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Basically my Frothing. Demand for this game increases.

[Damon Hadfield]

Demand for this game increases that game.

[Sam Claiborne]

And that got a GameCube port. Right. But it was that the. Was that an exclusive for GameCube?

[Justin Davis]

Maybe it was back then.

[Nick Limone]

Exclusive then, but it's since been ported.

[Damon Hadfield]

Was it on Dreamcast as well?

[Nick Limone]

No, I don't think. And I remember it was one of the games that. The first time I ever heard the word Tate.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, me too.

[Nick Limone]

Because you could do Tate mode on it.

[Justin Davis]

Yep, yep. Yeah. I mean, Ikaruga I had on the GameCube I never had, never and still have never played it in the Arcade. And the GameCube version, it's one of the first games I can remember doing something clever with. You know, these arcade games are, A, they're incredibly hard, and B, they're usually only like, what, 30 minutes long, like if you run them straight through. And so this was the first home arcade game that had like a meta game element of, like, when you started the game, you only had one continue, and then you had to play the game and like unlock more continues. And so that's getting a little bit more longevity compared to just being able to just, you know, put, you know, press the start button to continue. And then you're like, well, okay, I guess I just saw the whole game. So it kind of. It forced you to get good at it, which I appreciated.

[Nick Limone]

Agreed.

[Damon Hadfield]

Also love the warning.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Nick Limone]

So good.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. Arcade anniversaries. Okay, now it's time for my show and tell. And for that, let's check in with the listeners.

[Justin Davis]

Hey, listeners.

[Damon Hadfield]

Listeners, you can always reach us at the email address game scoop.com or you can just send us something in the mail.

[Justin Davis]

Just like I've been looking forward to this show until physical mail.

[Nick Limone]

I love it.

[Damon Hadfield]

I arrived at my desk this morning to find this on my desk. So this is from Jim in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jim says hi. Game Scoop Team. I hope this finds you all well. During the height of COVID I created a piece of art inspired by gamescoop as a small thank you for all the entertainment and joy you've brought me over the years. Back then, I tried to ship it to your offices, but with everything going on in the office closures at the time, it was returned to me.

[Justin Davis]

Oh.

[Damon Hadfield]

The piece ended up stored away in my garage, and I recently came across it again. Funny, it felt like rediscovering a time capsule from that strange period. And it reminded me that I never got the chance to properly send it your way. Gamescoop has been my favorite gaming Podcast for a long time. And this was simply meant as a gesture of appreciation from a fan who really values the work you do. I just wanted to finally get it to you and say thank you for being a consistent bright spot, especially during those Covid years. Thanks again for all the laughs, discussions, and passion you bring to gaming every week. Scoop. All the best, Jim Clark.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, that's nice.

[Justin Davis]

A lot of people on our video team worked very hard to figure out how to podcast from home in those early months.

[Damon Hadfield]

What?

[Nick Limone]

Certainly an interesting time, but Jim, is.

[Sam Claiborne]

It noodle versions of all of us.

[Justin Davis]

Whoa. That's so.

[Nick Limone]

That's a very cute woodworking piece. That's awesome.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, it's a bar relief woodwork.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I don't know how well the video is picking it up, but it's very 3D. Like, there's a lot of depth to it.

[Nick Limone]

That's beautiful.

[Damon Hadfield]

The Game Scoop, the older Game Scoop logo, which I still really like. We don't have the space behind it. It's on an old tv.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

On the back it says, thanks for the show, Jim Clark.

[Justin Davis]

Wow.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's inscribed.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. That's gorgeous.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. So this is work. We'll have to figure out a nice place to hang this.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, that's right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well done. Is it? I want to hear if it's, like, CNC routed or, like, how he made it.

[Damon Hadfield]

I would even. I would even say nicely.

[Nick Limone]

Job nicely.

[Damon Hadfield]

That is awesome. I will be displaying this proudly.

[Nick Limone]

That is gorgeous.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. I want to do some extracurricular activities if you'll allow for it.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, let's do it.

[Justin Davis]

First of all, no, thank you.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. I had a really busy weekend. First of all, I did something very cool that anyone in LA I think should check out. Nick, you should definitely check out. I went to Tarantino Live, which is a show happening by Sofi Stadium.

[Justin Davis]

Okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

And it's happening right next to the Cosm, which I told you I saw the Matrix at a few months ago. Giant indoor screen. But now Tarantino Live is happening in this big tent, the semi permanent tent, like the fanciest tent you can imagine.

[Justin Davis]

Got it.

[Damon Hadfield]

And there's a stage in the middle, so it's Theater in the Round. And there are tables and booths on the first floor. And upstairs is a balcony. You reserve your tables. The balcony is just, you know, general admission. Anyway, Tarantino Live is a stage show where they do scenes and songs from Tarantino Luis. And it's awesome. Everybody was great. Like, everyone's an amazing singer. There's a full bit, a live band the guitar player in the band also sings in acts, and he was great. And they do just various scenes from all the different movies. I think they do every movie except Hateful Eight, because I don't know what they would do.

[Sam Claiborne]

They do Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, yeah, they do scenes from Once Upon Hollywood.

[Sam Claiborne]

What was one of the scenes they did?

[Damon Hadfield]

They do when Al Pacino is, like, talking at the restaurant about what? All TV's about murder.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

A lot of killing.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. I read the part in the book last night where they were filming that scene at Musso and Frank Grill. And Quentin Tarantino would. Would say between things, any extras on any set, but especially that one that smoked cigarettes. Light one up. Because everybody smoked in the 60s. And so everybody that was just like a smoker now would just be smoking cigarettes in the background of stuff. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

The B roll you're seeing is the show. So they do a lot from Rest of our dogs, obviously a lot from Pulp Fiction. It was fantastic. It's like the best time I've had seeing a show in a long time.

[Nick Limone]

That's cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did you. Was there, like a bar with drinks and stuff like that, too?

[Damon Hadfield]

We had a table and we had a waitress coming by. But there's also a bar you can go to. There's pretty good food. We had really good popcorn. It was great.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's right. Did you have eight whiskey sours?

[Damon Hadfield]

Couldn't have been one, Couldn't have been three or four. Yeah. Obviously they do Rest of Our Dogs in Pulp Fiction. It's great entertainment live. I recommend it. It's.

[Justin Davis]

It's.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's going to be. I think they said they're going to be there through August, so.

[Nick Limone]

Nice.

[Justin Davis]

It's a long run.

[Damon Hadfield]

Definitely check that out. And then speaking of things that are only around for a short amount of time, Monday was a holiday here. MLK Day in the. In the States. So my wife and I got a babysitter and we went to see the Fellowship of the Ring and it was great.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean, obviously it was great.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. That was the best of the three, in my opinion.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean, yeah, I love them all. Be right.

[Nick Limone]

It works.

[Damon Hadfield]

He's the best. I think if you're just watching it on. But we're just going to watch one.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's one they knew they might not get to put out another one.

[Damon Hadfield]

The rest is the Hobbit. Get that out of here.

[Nick Limone]

I think Joe Bert's trolling us right now.

[Damon Hadfield]

But also it starts out with new introductions from Peter Jackson. Oh, well, that part they probably could have because it's just Peter Jackson in his living room. He didn't prepare anything. He's got the world's largest cat scratcher behind him. I think he could generously be described as dishevel. And he's kind of like, thanks for coming to see Fellowship. I didn't know if anyone would want to see it, but I was talking to a Lord of the Rings fan recently, and he said he was too young to see them, and. And now he's glad he gets to see them in theaters. You know, we were making it. You know, we played them all through at the same time, and the media thought, well, you know, maybe if these all fail, the new line pictures would go under. And he just go. It's like 10 minutes long.

[Justin Davis]

No, no.

[Damon Hadfield]

So maybe they could have avoided that. But, yeah, obviously.

[Sam Claiborne]

I love it so much.

[Damon Hadfield]

The movie is 11 out of 10 off the charts.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, the cell part is so good. Good.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. My wife saw that. Your wife went to go see that movie, and she's like, well, Kim got to go see it. You want to go see? I'm like, well, I didn't think you'd want to. Okay, let's go.

[Justin Davis]

Well, maybe I'll take the whole fam.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean, yeah, I would. We love to go to see it, too, but here's the reality of, you know, I going to see. That was at least a hundred dollars for our babysitter. That's the babysitter part of the day.

[Justin Davis]

You got to really want to, like.

[Damon Hadfield]

$300 before we even buy the tickets for all these things.

[Justin Davis]

Anyway, he said it was the extended edition.

[Damon Hadfield]

Right.

[Justin Davis]

So you get all the extra hobbit stuff. It's the best part of the whole thing.

[Damon Hadfield]

I wouldn't.

[Nick Limone]

Fellowship also has the best extended cut.

[Justin Davis]

Yep. 100. It's the only extended cut that makes the movie better.

[Damon Hadfield]

Sam's like, I made a promise. Don't you lose some Samwise games.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's so good. And then finally, I think that warm.

[Sam Claiborne]

Your fight is incredible. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, yeah, with the Roi War looks so good.

[Damon Hadfield]

And then the. The. The. The Roi. They just pick up Mar and Pippen and run off with them, and they're.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, yeah, yeah, let's go hunt some orcs.

[Damon Hadfield]

One of the. Maybe one of the greatest ADR lines when. When Gendar falls and Froto's just like. It's slow motion, so they had to record it. Like.

[Justin Davis]

No. Yeah, there's. When I saw this, there's a little.

[Sam Claiborne]

Bit of that huh. Where they match up the slow motion to actual audio without slow. It's interesting.

[Justin Davis]

I saw this in theaters on a date, and as we were walking out, there are two people that were clearly. They didn't know the source material. They didn't know Lord of the Rings. So Fellowship ends, and they're walking out, and very sarcastically, they're like, oh, I wonder if they're gonna make more. Because it ends on, like, the story's one third.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that's great.

[Damon Hadfield]

So that was great. And then finally, I watched A Night of the Seven Kingdoms, which I know Sam watched. Anyone else?

[Nick Limone]

I watched that as well.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, not yet.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

Okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, no spoilers. I had to watch it twice because it's good. But after the first time I watched, it was just like, I can't believe this got made.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. It's just.

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't think this is going to be very popular. No, but it is good.

[Justin Davis]

Very little happens. Right?

[Nick Limone]

It's really good. I was very taken aback by its, like, comedic editing, which I did not expect. Yeah, it kind of rocks.

[Justin Davis]

Just people existing in Westeros.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. It's a. It's a sitcom in Westeros.

[Nick Limone]

It reminds me a lot of Kingdom Come deliver quite a bit.

[Justin Davis]

That's a good connection.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

I have a lot to say about this that I will not say until the season's over. This has really cool connections to Game of Thrones, and the characters are interesting, and the reasons why we follow those characters is totally worth it. But it has a different vibe. I think it's a better vibe than House of the Dragon. I think it doesn't take itself seriously. It's showing people having fun and enjoying themselves in Westeros, which explains why people even clamor for peace instead of war in this world. It's all really cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

Like I said, good episode, too.

[Sam Claiborne]

People don't act the way you think they're going to act. Right. Like, there's a Baratheon who you think is going to be like. Because we're used to seeing every noble person be the worst possible version of an authoritarian serial killer, basically. And then they're not in this. Right.

[Damon Hadfield]

A lot of people are just kind of quirky.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's good. But, like, you know, so Game of Thrones was this phenomenon as mainstream as a prestige television show can be. So HBO and Warner Brothers are like, we got to do more of this. So we get House of the Dragon, which I also think is good, but, you know, less good than. At least Game of Thrones first season was good.

[Nick Limone]

The second season I was like, oh, this is a high school euphoric.

[Damon Hadfield]

And the euphoria is taking. It's just taking too long. So you have diminishing returns. And now you said you Sweden, which I think is going to be even less popular. But I do, I still think it's.

[Justin Davis]

Good and enjoyable and maybe everybody's going to love it. It's like an easy watch. It's just a vibes based show. Like that's great.

[Sam Claiborne]

It should have been dumped as one.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't think this makes sense.

[Nick Limone]

Week to week one Pro tip is if you. I don't think you should. The coming up this season of Night of the Seven Kingdom. Don't watch that. I was like, oh, this is just the whole season. All right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did anybody watch the new Trek?

[Justin Davis]

Not yet.

[Damon Hadfield]

What? Star Trek.

[Justin Davis]

It's next on my list.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think it's easily, easily the best Star Trek since. I don't know.

[Justin Davis]

I mean this generation cast is stacked. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

So it's so much better written than even that first season of. What was the last one?

[Nick Limone]

Strange New Worlds.

[Sam Claiborne]

Strange New Worlds.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I mean Paul gmi, which was a good season. That's awesome. Laura Linny.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's super fun. I've watched it twice because I like watched it all. I was like, hm, my wife will like this show. And then we watched it together. The first two episodes again. They were so good.

[Damon Hadfield]

All right. And all that brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Charlie Gadson in San Diego. He has a little anecdote, but it's a little spoilery, so. Nah, let's just, let's just let the questioning begin.

[Justin Davis]

Did this game come out in the 70s, 80s or 90s?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

I also want to say that Lower Decks is very good too. I forgot about Lower decks.

[Justin Davis]

Lower Decks is over now, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

It is, yeah.

[Justin Davis]

It makes sense.

[Sam Claiborne]

And there's multiple elements of that show in the.

[Justin Davis]

Sure. Cool.

[Nick Limone]

Is this. Is this game made in Japan?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, he hesitated.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, I. Because I have to look up exactly where. But not. It's not Japan.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that's. What was the time it was after.

[Justin Davis]

Not in the 70s, 80s or 90s.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Okay. Okay.

[Justin Davis]

Could be space.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was. Was this a platform exclusive?

[Damon Hadfield]

It was.

[Justin Davis]

Was it exclusive to a PlayStation platform?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Nick Limone]

Is it exclusive to a Nintendo platform?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes. That's five.

[Nick Limone]

Exclusive to a Nintendo platform. Not made in Japan.

[Sam Claiborne]

Sorry, not made in Japan. Okay, here we go.

[Nick Limone]

Like, maybe it's like a Metroid Prime.

[Justin Davis]

You got a Metroid prime situation going on here, Here.

[Sam Claiborne]

The Canada team made that. But it could just be like, I don't know, if they work with Korean developers.

[Justin Davis]

It could be like, you know, like a Professor Layton type of deal.

[Nick Limone]

That's level five though, isn't it?

[Justin Davis]

We don't exclusive to a Nintendo platform. That's all we know.

[Nick Limone]

But not made in Japan.

[Justin Davis]

Ah, true, true.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh yeah, That's a good question then. Was this published by Nintendo?

[Damon Hadfield]

Are you asking that question?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

No, it was up.

[Justin Davis]

Got it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Great.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, wow.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, so the rare Nintendo exclusive that wasn't made by them could be one of the Capcom 5. Although those are all made in Japan.

[Sam Claiborne]

Love it, love it. Did this come out on a system with two screens?

[Damon Hadfield]

No. Well, I'm sorry. Yes, it did it eventually.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. Oh, what?

[Nick Limone]

So it eventually came to the 3Ds.

[Sam Claiborne]

I would assume it sounds like Donkey Kong Tropical whatever.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, Donkey Kong Returns.

[Justin Davis]

But they publish this in like four questions now. Nintendo published Donkey Kong.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Dang, dang, danky king.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, no.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, is this game on the Nintendo Wii?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Nick Limone]

That's what makes me think it's exclusive because it utilizes motion controls to some extent.

[Justin Davis]

Man. Okay. A Wii game that later was ported to the, you know, the 3Ds or maybe the 3Ds. Yeah, I mean, I don't think it.

[Nick Limone]

Could have been DS though.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's all the information we even need.

[Justin Davis]

What about like Zombie U from Ubisoft? That was Wii U. Yeah, but that.

[Nick Limone]

Got like a PS5 Xbox Series release, I believe.

[Justin Davis]

It can't actually be that because that's how we use. But this is a Wii game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Something getting ported to 3Ds or whatever from Wii U.

[Justin Davis]

Could be boom blocks of the Wii.

[Nick Limone]

Steven Spielberg's.

[Justin Davis]

Yep. Steven Spielberg's boom blocks. What was his like alien game element? Oh, is that what that was going to be called? Yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

What about meteos type stuff? Or like, was there maybe like a.

[Nick Limone]

Maybe like a pit cross or something? Was there a pic cross on Wii?

[Justin Davis]

Probably.

[Sam Claiborne]

Would you. I don't remember one being. Do you. Do you think that this is. Okay, here's a question. Was this on Wii? Did this primarily use motion based control?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I think it might be boom blocks. Although I don't remember it being on the DS or 3DS, but I don't.

[Nick Limone]

Remember it being on 3DS.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was Steven Spielberg involved in the creation of this game?

[Damon Hadfield]

No. F10 Rip.

[Justin Davis]

Oh boy.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, what about World of Goo?

[Justin Davis]

Oh, that's so good. How did you remember? Because that Was a. That was like a Wii exclusive for a while.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's likely that it got not ported, right?

[Justin Davis]

Like, it seems like that also, but I don't. I mean, well, this is. This is me picking nits. But, like, I don't know that I would say that's motion controls as much as it was like the Wii pointer.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, I could count that.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, okay. That's fine. That's fine.

[Nick Limone]

Does this game have a sequel?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

World of Boo 2 did just come out.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was this. Was this an indie game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, you would probably say no.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, man, I was so. I was so locked in on World of Goo. I thought that was such a good guess.

[Sam Claiborne]

What.

[Justin Davis]

When this game came out, did it come out on a Wii disc?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, so it's not some weird downloadable. Only thing. The Wii Eshop, new Eshop games we wear. It's Wednesday.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, no sport games, racing, no codename Steve Zach and Wiki didn't get ported to anything, I don't think.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it was also Capcom.

[Sam Claiborne]

But that would be okay. Oh, no, no. Because it suggests he's not Japanese.

[Nick Limone]

Maybe we want to touch on, like the type of game potentially. If it is.

[Justin Davis]

I don't know. I don't know if we have enough questions for that.

[Nick Limone]

What do we have yet?

[Damon Hadfield]

You've asked 13, we've asked seven.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, yeah. I feel like we can get this one. Okay. Yeah, we can do some genre stuff. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm trying to think of likely genres for motion controls.

[Nick Limone]

Like, what would you consider. Boom.

[Sam Claiborne]

Blocks.

[Nick Limone]

What kind of game is that? Like a shoot? Is that a shooter?

[Justin Davis]

I don't know what I would call that.

[Sam Claiborne]

We. We eliminated that. But that's a puzzle game.

[Justin Davis]

I would call it a puzzle game. Probably arcade.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's Jenga. It was Jenga.

[Nick Limone]

Ported to something with two screens, though. Makes me think it has a bigger impact.

[Justin Davis]

What about like the world ends with you or something like that?

[Nick Limone]

That's a great. Well, that was DS though. That was ported to Switch.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Okay. Dang.

[Nick Limone]

That was a good. That's a good one for a sec. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

And it's Japanese. Never mind. Bad guess is this game. Is this game. What are the three genres we want. Do we want to do like, puzzle, Puzzle sports. Puzzle sports. Is this a puzzle sports or rpg?

[Damon Hadfield]

No, man.

[Nick Limone]

I was really betting on Wii Sports resort or something.

[Justin Davis]

These questions are always a trap.

[Nick Limone]

Is there a pilot wings on Wii?

[Sam Claiborne]

Because I think there is a Pintendo.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, yeah, you're right.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's not even made by Wii exclusive.

[Justin Davis]

Made by like a European or American, you know, or Canadian.

[Sam Claiborne]

What if it's like a Red Steel type game? Could it be that.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, you be. Yeah, you beat be.

[Justin Davis]

Could be like. Could be a Red Steel Rayman.

[Sam Claiborne]

Raven Rapids got ported around all over the place.

[Justin Davis]

Could be one of those weird Rayman games.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was this game developed by Ubisoft?

[Damon Hadfield]

No. Oh, it's 15.

[Justin Davis]

What about. What about Carnival Games? I don't know if that was on 3Ds, but like, you probably.

[Damon Hadfield]

Probably.

[Nick Limone]

That'd be a cruel one to pick.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this would have waggle controls though, for that.

[Justin Davis]

Right? I'm gonna. I'm gonna confer that. I'm not actually asking this question. Is it worth asking, is this one of those weird Wii games that like, has a bunch of. Yeah, like a carnival games type.

[Sam Claiborne]

I just don't think those made it off the Wii to anything. But I guess Wii U could be the other two screen thing that things got ported to.

[Justin Davis]

That would be. That would be so rude. The Wii U doesn't have two screens.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's probably more likely.

[Nick Limone]

You gotta use two screens to play the Wii U for a lot of.

[Justin Davis]

It, I would say, but I wouldn't. I mean, again, this is me picking nits. I wouldn't say the WWII U has two screens. The other screen is the television.

[Damon Hadfield]

And.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, was there like an exclusive rock band or something like that for Wii?

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

I don't know.

[Justin Davis]

Not that I can think of.

[Nick Limone]

Maybe like. Oh, no, that's Sega.

[Justin Davis]

Is this.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this this.

[Justin Davis]

I. I want to ask the mini game, is this. Is this game a situation where there's a bunch of weird mini games inside the game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

I think it might be carnival games, y'.

[Sam Claiborne]

All.

[Justin Davis]

Carnival games. What else? Because, like, who else was making. So, okay, because, like, you know, there was Wii Play and Wii Sports, but those are Nintendo, obviously. And then I'm trying to think, you know, even WarioWare or like Rayman raving.

[Nick Limone]

Rabbits, but it's not UB.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. So, like, there was the Rayman raving Rabbids, but it's not UB who made.

[Sam Claiborne]

Such a perfect collection?

[Justin Davis]

Carnival Games is published by 2K, I think. Did I dream that? I don't know.

[Nick Limone]

I stared at that case so many times and I could not tell you.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, Damon, does this game. Does this game feature carnival games inside it?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Is it carnival games?

[Nick Limone]

Yes. Well done.

[Sam Claiborne]

What'd it get ported to?

[Damon Hadfield]

Which. And so released on Wii in 2007. Released on DS in 2008.

[Sam Claiborne]

Jeez, what is that? Yes.

[Damon Hadfield]

God of the sequels. Yeah, this is one of the most successful.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, are these fake Miis?

[Justin Davis]

I think they're real.

[Sam Claiborne]

Are they not real?

[Nick Limone]

They're real. They're real Miis.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, they are. You do import me into it.

[Justin Davis]

Well, maybe they're fake. I don't know that you could do hair.

[Nick Limone]

It does look a little too balloon shaped to me. Now that you mention it.

[Damon Hadfield]

It is kind of interesting. So developed by Cat Daddy games and not2k did not publish the Wii version. It was published by Global Star Software.

[Justin Davis]

Okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

Then that was absorbed into 2K. They saw it was this big hit because like what else would. What else did 2k publish on the Wii? This would have been their big hit on the Wii.

[Sam Claiborne]

Right.

[Justin Davis]

I don't know why I was rattling around in my brain. I associated this with 2K. But carnival games, like if you don't know, like this was. I don't have the sales stats in front of me, but it sold millions and millions of. And millions of copies on the Wii. It was just one of those games that like every kid ended up with this in their Wii library.

[Nick Limone]

Did it come with a Wii Remote?

[Justin Davis]

I don't think that was Wii Play for sure there. Maybe Wii Play came with the Motion plus controller. Maybe even as I'm remembering, maybe just a normal.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think that was just Wii Sports Resort.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Yeah, I think you're right actually.

[Nick Limone]

But yeah, I mean, I think, I genuinely think this is the game that I. I'm sure this game has some really cool elements in.

[Damon Hadfield]

In it.

[Nick Limone]

I feel like this is the game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Valley Ball.

[Nick Limone]

As someone who worked at the Best Buy where this was always on the 1999 shelf, this was like the game. I was like, oh, this is the reason why all the shovelware exists.

[Justin Davis]

I actually. But I. I actually don't think this game's that bad. Like for sure value for 20.

[Nick Limone]

Yes, I'm sure, I'm sure it's great. But I think it opened the way for the all in one mini game dump collection.

[Justin Davis]

Yes.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean this probably got a 6.5 from IGN, right? It's not that bad.

[Justin Davis]

There's no way.

[Nick Limone]

What's the IGN scale?

[Justin Davis]

Let's see.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, according to Wikipedia, it is the 47th best selling Wii game.

[Nick Limone]

That's pretty good. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

They made this whole series 100 and.

[Justin Davis]

Then they kept trying, they kept trying to make it happen. There's like carnival games for Wii U.

[Damon Hadfield]

There's new carnival games. Then carnival games. Monkey See, monkey do for 360. Carnival games, wild west 3d for 3ds. Carnival games VR.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

And then they just made it. They remade carnival games in 2018 for the Switch.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, they keep trying.

[Nick Limone]

Unreal Eng.

[Justin Davis]

None of it's hitting the same.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Was I. I had a fun.

[Sam Claiborne]

Can you imagine carnival games VR. What a. What a mess that must be.

[Justin Davis]

We. I had a classic family Christmas moment this year where my mom. So my kids grandma were at grandma's house for Christmas, right. And she still has a Wii in her basement and it's like meh. Like we just turned it on Wii Sports like and it was great. Like everybody like, like slowly the whole family. Like it started with just a couple of us and then like Wii Sports.

[Nick Limone]

Man, still does crazy good.

[Justin Davis]

Like it still sucks you in and it's still like other people. Like you try it. No, I don't want to try it.

[Damon Hadfield]

And when they try.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Then they just try it. They're like, oh, okay. Like it's still. It was super fun. I mean it's funny how like your expectations, like it looks so low res, like it's so blurry but like, you know, TVs were smaller back then. So.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nice to job. Charlie Gadza said, I don't own this game personally, but I remember IGN podcast at the time always complaining about it even as it was selling gangbusters.

[Nick Limone]

That's complaining about it. You guys probably had to review every version of the game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, I think it's because we would read off the sales numbers each month and then this would always be in the top 10.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I mean it's outselling, you know, something incredible.

[Nick Limone]

Top the NPD Geist.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's outselling Geist and everybody's mad.

[Damon Hadfield]

Outselling the conduit.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, thank you for the suggestion, Charlie Gadsden. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own Suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address gamescoop.com and that is all the scoops that we have for you this week. I'm glad we could do a 75% in person scoop. We did 100% in person scoop earlier this week. Again, we'll be able to share more news about that soon. But thank you, Justin. Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Sam. Thank you to Jobert. Working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. My name is Damon. This is ign. Give soup a round.

[Justin Davis]

Sam. I don't even want to scoop. This is. This is the most interesting like before show B roll we've had in a while. Now I'm invested. Oh, I think that left too big.

[Sam Claiborne]

I. I wish I could go to Like a German beer hall. And just watch this on the tv.

[Nick Limone]

That's looking pretty good.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. All right, buddy. That's. That's enough.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. Is there a shot clock on this?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Seriously, sleep.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, yeah. See, he's. I mean, blue.

[Damon Hadfield]

Blue.

[Justin Davis]

Blue takes it every once in a while, but I don't have as much faith in, like, you know, his ability. Yeah, bro.

[Nick Limone]

Please shut up. Thank you.

[Damon Hadfield]

Bro.

[Nick Limone]

You didn't do anything.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

The camera work in this.

[Sam Claiborne]

They always do the cut lineup, but then they never actually change it.

[Justin Davis]

No. Like, what does he adjust? Yeah. Oh, okay. I'll just cut it.

[Nick Limone]

It's a micro cut. That's the stuff that our. Our eyes aren't used to seeing, man.

[Justin Davis]

Well, and then meanwhile, red's just like, bam.

[Sam Claiborne]

All right, Point two. Oh, point two.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I don't know what they do then.

[Nick Limone]

Now they have to cut each other in half. It's a duel.

[Justin Davis]

They have to cut each half in half again.

[Damon Hadfield]

They should bring out, like, the whole tuna.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, £190.

[Damon Hadfield]

Gotta be a lot more than that, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, probably.

[Justin Davis]

Huh.

[Damon Hadfield]

Gemini. How much is a whole tube away?

[Justin Davis]

Oh, I like this pretzel. That'll be a good one. I hope blue does something nutty.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, dude, he's already going sick of his pretzel.

[Justin Davis]

Looks way harder there. To be fair, I don't need to carry water for blue guy, but, like, his pretzel looks way less symmetrical. It's got Bulgy.

[Damon Hadfield]

An Atlantic bluefin. Its average weight is 600 pounds, but the max weight is 1500 plus.

[Justin Davis]

Wow. So that's heavy.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Yeah, it looks better.

[Nick Limone]

Nice.

[Justin Davis]

Great.

[Sam Claiborne]

All right, let's just see the results.

[Justin Davis]

We got to see pretzel.

[Damon Hadfield]

Doing pretzel. Now.

[Sam Claiborne]

What's. What's the. What's the show called?

[Damon Hadfield]

Do you remember the German name? Nick?

[Nick Limone]

Nah. Oh, Schlage Hensler.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh. So knife. Something.

[Justin Davis]

Bro. What are you doing?

[Damon Hadfield]

He's the slow one.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

He's got to account for that winning, right?

[Nick Limone]

You gotta account for that little divot.

[Justin Davis]

I think red's won most.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, I think he messed up.

[Justin Davis]

Up.

[Sam Claiborne]

Why don't they have the overall rankings?

[Justin Davis]

I don't understand scoreboard, But where.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, drop. Oh, yeah, he's washed.

[Nick Limone]

Fell off.

[Sam Claiborne]

Eat the pretzel. Eat the pretzel.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. We got to do a show.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, Stefan. Oh, there's the overalls. Yes. This one's going to be good, though. What?

[Nick Limone]

Now he's talking comedian.

[Damon Hadfield]

We got a comedian over here.

[Sam Claiborne]

I have a second career on stage as a comedian.

[Justin Davis]

Nice. So no banana phones. Just. Wow. He's. If he.

[Sam Claiborne]

If he does it vertically, I think he's going to do it.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I think he's going to. No, that.

[Sam Claiborne]

That woody stem.

[Nick Limone]

Hell, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Now he's gonna pick it up and look at it for a while.

[Damon Hadfield]

Is there a rule, like, once the knife has entered, you can't take it out?

[Nick Limone]

That's kind of the vibe I'm getting.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Yeah, I don't think that's. I don't think this is the move, man.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, he already lost a little bit there. Well, this is an insane way of.

[Sam Claiborne]

Cutting a banana that he can bisect. He can adjust to the twist at.

[Damon Hadfield]

The end that way, maybe about his fingers. Although it doesn't look symmetrical to me.

[Justin Davis]

The stem seems heavier on the right. Okay, now we gotta watch banana. They're making do. Yeah, this is clearly the movement, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

Baguette looks insane. Well, I guess you just go halfies with that one.

[Nick Limone]

Maybe he's like, oh, the stem's always five grams.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

[Nick Limone]

That's not bad.

[Damon Hadfield]

Plus 03.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I don't.

[Justin Davis]

Damn.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wow. It's exactly the same.

[Damon Hadfield]

All right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Crazy.

[Damon Hadfield]

All right, Joe, we can start the show.

[Sam Claiborne]

All right, tell us how it ends, Captain.

[Damon Hadfield]

Here we go. There you go.